Printing-press.



No. 852,973. PATENTED MAY 7,-1907.

' R. MIEHLB.

PRINTING PRESS.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 9, 1905 2 SHEETS-SHEET l.

1H: mum's PETERS co., WASHINGTON, oc PATENTED MAY 7, 1907.

8-SHEET 2.

ROBERT MIEHLE, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

PRINTING-PRESS.

. Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 7, 1907.

Application filed January 9, 1905. Serial No. 240,235.

To all whom, it 77b6ty concern:

Be it known that I, ROBERT MIEI-ILE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, county of Cook, and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Two-Color Printing-Presses, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact specification.

My invention relates to that class of printing presses designed especially for the pur pose of printing two colors on the same side of a sheet fromseparate forms as a continuous operation, and which presses usually comprise two impression cylinders, one for each of the reciprocal forms, and a transfer cylinder arranged intermediate the impression cylinders and adapted, by means of suitable grippers, to take the sheet from one cylinder and transfer it to the other. In presses of this character it is of course essential that the transferring cylinder be driven at the same surface speed as the impression cylinders and at the time the transfer from cylinder to cylinder is being made the predetermined relation of the cylinders should be accurately maintained so that the grippers will register with and receive the edge of the sheet in the proper and uniform manner but since the impression cylinders in many forms of such presses are necessarily raised and lowered with relation to the transferring cylinder it is obvious that for a part of the time the gears connecting the impression cylinders with the transferring cylinder are only imperfectly intermeshed and in fact are not perfectly in mesh excepting when the center of each of the impression cylinders falls into a line passing through the center of the transferring cylinder and perpendicular to the line of bodily movement of the impression cylinder. Now since the transfer is effected while the impression cylinders are elevated high enough to be out of contact with the form, it necessarily follows that as each impression cylinder gear moves downwardly from the point of transfer, its teeth recede farther and farther from the teeth of the trans ferring cylinder gear, resulting in an objectionable distance and imperfect intermesh between them at the time the printing is being done.

The primary object of my invention is to reduce this distance while at the same time having the construction such that at the time of transfer the center of each impression cylinder and that of the transferring cylinder will be in a straight line perpendicular to the line of bodily movement of the impression cylinder, without reducing the circumferential area of the impression surface of either impression cylinder.

With a view to the attainment of these ends and the accomplishment of certain other objects which will hereinafter appear the invention consists in certain features of novelty in the construction, combination and arrangement of parts which will now be de scribed with reference to the accompanyin drawings and then more particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the said drawings-Figure 1 is a side elevation, partly broken away, of a portion of a printing press constructed according to my invention. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section thereof.

1, 2 are the first and second impression cylinders respectively, 3 the intermediate transfer cylinder, 4, 5 the forms for the cylinders 1, 2 respectively, 6 the feed board, 7 the grippers of the first impression cylinder, 8 the grippers of the second impression cylinder and 9 the grippers of the transferring cylinder, all of which may be of the usual or any suitable construction well known to those skilled in the art, and the three cylinders may be geared together or otherwise suitably connected by operative means as for example by gears 10, 11 on the cylinders 1, 2 respectively and pinion or gear 12 on the transferring cylinder 3 and these may be driven or rotated from any suitable source and by any suitable means, as for example a gear 13 meshing with a second gear 14 on the transferring cylinder and which gear 13 may be driven by any appropriate connec tion with some other part of the press as is well understood in this art and not necessary to illustrate.

The shafts 15, 16 of the impression cylinders are mounted as usual in suitable boxes 17 18 mounted in upright jaws or guide ways 19, 20 and adapted to be raised and lowered at the proper time by the usual cams or eccentrics 21, 22 connected to crank arms 23, 24 having attachment with any suitable part of the operating mechanism of the press, or by any other appropriate means, as well understood.

In order that the impression cylinders may each be provided with the maximum extent of impression surface, it is necessary to place the center of the transferring cylinder above the centers of the impression cylinders so that the point at which the sheet begins to transfer from one cylinder to the other will be above the line of the horizontal diameters of the impression cylinders and consequently should the impression cylinders be raised perpendicularly from the bed or forms the bodily line of movement of each. would form an obtuse angle with a line which passes through the center of the transferring cylinder and the point of closest contact between the gear thereof and the gear 10 or 11, (that point being the transfer point). This would result in each impression cylinder gear receding from the transfer cylinder gear a greater distance for the same extent of downward movement than were the point of transfer in the same horizontal line with the horizontal diameters of the impression cylinders. In order to minimize this receding action of the impression cylinder gears I change their direction of rising and falling movement from vertical lines to. inclines tending or converging at their lower ends toward the transferring cylinder, and thus keep the transfer point and the centers of the transfer cylinder and the impression cylinder to which. the transfer is being made, in a straight line perpendicular to the line of bodily movement of that impression cylinder, while at the same time maintaining the desirable relatively elevated position of the center of the transferring cylinder. To these ends therefore the jaws or guide ways 19, 20 for supporting and guiding the boxes 17, 18 are arranged on downwardly converging inclines as clearly shown in Fig. 2 and the shaft 3 of the transferring cylinder is permanently fixed with its center at a higher elevation than the normal altitude of the centers of the shafts 15, 16 so that in practice the distance between the impression cylinders is less than the diameter of the transferring cylinder when the impression cylinders are in their lowered position but at the time the transfer is being made, as shown in Fig. 2, the point of transfer, which is constituted by the point at which the grippers 8, 9 register with each other or take the sheet one from the other, is in a direct inder and the impression cylinder 2 and this line, which is represented by the dotted line A is perpendicular to the line of bodily movement B of the impression cylinder 2. It is immaterial therefore whether the bodily movement of the impression cylinder continue upwardly beyond this point or terminate thereat, so long as the downward movement of the impression cylinder from such point inclines toward the transferring cylinder so as to minimize the recession of the impression cylinder gear with relation to the transferring cylinder gear. It is of course apparent that if the cylinders touch or substantially touch at the transfer point the line of downward movement of the impression cylinder cannot constitute less than a right angle with a line passing through the center of the transferring cylinder and such trans fefpoint and hence the said recession cannot be minimized beyond that degree, assuming that the bodily or rising and lowering movement of the impression cylinder be in a straight line instead of a curved line tending toward the transferring cylinder and while such a curved line of movement might be possible it is hardly feasible to so form the boxes and their guiding jaws; but while the straight line of movement is preferable and vastly superior and enables the accomplishment of the desired end it will nevertheless be understood that my invention in its broadest aspect is not limited to moving the impression cylinders in strictly straight lines.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new therein and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1. In a printing press the combination with the bed, two impression cylinders, a transferring cylinder arranged between the impression cylinders, said cylinders being provided with means for transferring the sheet from one to the other, and means for driving said cylinders in unison, of means for raising and lowering the impression cylinders in lines of motion converging downwardly toward the transferring cylinder.

2. In a printing press the combination with the bed and two impression cylinders, of a transferring cylinder arranged between the impression cylinders with its center above the line of the horizontal diameters of the impression cylinders, means for driving said cylinders in unison and means for raising and ,lowering the impression cylinders in lines converging downwardly toward the transferring cylinder.

3. In a printing press the combination with the bed and two impression cylinders, of

a transferring cylinder arranged between the impression cylinders with its center permanently fixed above the line of the horizontal diameters of the impression cylinders, means i for driving said cylinders in unison, and line wlth the centers of the transferring cylcylinder in a line inclining downwardly toward the transferring cylinder, the center of for driving said cylinders in unison, of means the transferring cylinder being fixed above the center of said impression cylinder and immovable therewith.

5. In a printing press the combination with the bed, two impression cylinders, a transferring cylinder arranged between the impression cylinders, means whereby the sheet is transferred from one cylinder to another, means for driving said cylinders in unison, and boxes in which said impression cylinders are j ournaled, of upright jaws or guides for said boxes converging downwardly toward said transferring cylinder, and means for raising and lowering said boxes in said jaws.

6. In a printing press the combination with the bed, two impression cylinders, a stationary transferring cylinder arranged between the impression cylinders, and means for raising and lowering the impression cylinders in lines of movement converging downwardly toward the transferring cylinder, a 1 gear wheel on the transferring cylinder and a second gear wheel fordriving the first said gear wheel, the said gear wheels having their centers relatively and permanently fixed.

7. Ina printing press, the combination with the bed, an impression cylinder, means I for lifting said cylinder'from the bed, a sheet transferring means arranged in operative relation to said cylinder, and means for guiding said impression cylinder at an oblique angle v to the bed in a rectilinear movement.

ROBERT MIEHLE.

Witnesses I F. A. HOPKINS, M. B, ALLsTADT. 

